Market snaps 5-day losing streak

Equity market ended flat, amid a volatile trading session, on Monday as investors turned cautious and booked profits at higher levels after recent gains on the back of reports suggesting that the recent rally seems to have run ahead of fundamentals.

Market pundits point out that the current market rally has been building up on hopes of the BJP-led NDA alliance emerging victorious in the Lok Sabha elections.

The 30-share Sensex ended up 41 points at 22,445 and the 50-share Nifty gained 4 points to end at 6,699.

Data showing that foreign funds remained net buyers of Indian stocks on Friday offset weakness in European stocks and lower US index futures,  as FIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 407.70 crore from the secondary equity markets on May 2, 2014.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative.

In effect, domestic stocks snapped five-day losing streak this day with the Sensex have had declined 472.65 points, or 2.06 per cent in five trading sessions to 22,403.89 on 2 May 2014 from a recent high of 22,876.54 on 23 April 2014.

From a macro perspective, the Sensex had risen 31.53 points or 0.14 per cent in April 2014, while it has gained 1,274.44 points or 6.01 per cent in calendar year 2014 so far (till May 5, 2014).